Health promotion interventions using community organization theory toreduce tobacco use

Background: Intersectoral cooperation and community participation are the most importantprinciples of primary health care. Health promoting interventions by applying the “theory ofcommunity organization” in order to improve the community health as well as control and reducetobacco consumption through community participation and comprehensive support oforganizations, is currently being designed and implemented by health education and promotiondepartment, Ministry of Health and Medical Education.Methods: This project can be done at the national level. The grassroots organization andleadership development are done at the Ministry of Health, the Vice-Chancellor for Health inuniversities and the city health centers. In this project, advocacy is done through "organizationalself-care program" by representatives from each organization. In order to community participationand community empowerment by empowerment oriented social action approach, “Healthvolunteers program” is used by the TOT method to control and reduce tobacco consumption. Inorder to organizing coalitions, the program of “student health ambassadors” in seminaries,universities and schools is used. Socio-cultural interventions including ۳ National healthcampaigns were carried out in cooperation with relevant organizations. In order to implementspecific interventions in universities, that the issue of smoking is one of the primary priorities, it isnecessary to evaluate and identify the influential causes of the problem by advocacy andcommunity participation in RCCE (Risk Communication and community engagement) program.Results: Evaluation and monitoring of similar programs have shown that interventions based oncommunity organization theory can be effective in creating social and behavioral changes byconsidering all the influential aspects and required strategies.Conclusion: According to similar studies, advocacy and community participation based oncommunity organization theory, in community based health promotion interventions can beeffective for controlling and reducing tobacco use.

Keywords:

Community Building , Capacity Building , Community Organization Theory , Advocacy , Collaboration.